Islamabad, Jan 16, IRNA - Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar said on Wednesday that Pakistan wanted to lift trade relations with all its neighbors and regional countries, including Iran, India, and Turkey.

Addressing the 11th annual report, launched by Burky Institute of Public Policy on Wednesday, the minister said that Iran was an important neighbour of Pakistan in the west and the world should stop creating trade impediments between the two countries.

“Whenever the World Bank and other international bodies come to me, they always say that intra-regional trade is extremely important to boost economic growth, and they also advise me to resume good trade ties with India, but strangely nobody asks me about another our important neighbour in the west, which is Iran,” he said. “Trade impediments have been created between Pakistan and Iran and I fail to understand the criteria fixed in the economic theory that trade with neighbour in the east is good whereas trade with neighbors in the west is not good.”

He hoped that “hypocrisy of the global community will also reduce” with time, adding that the prime minister had already taken an initiative with regard to developing trade relationships with India and hopefully the new leadership of India, after the general election, would give a positive response to the PM’s move.

Tehran, Sept 15, IRNA – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his message on International Day of Democracy, 15 September 2019, urged all governments to respect the right to active, substantive and meaningful participation.

Tehran, Sept 15, IRNA – Iran's President Hassan Rouhani sent a message to his Nicaraguan counterpart to José Daniel Ortega Saavedra to congratulate his country's Independence Day to the Nicaraguan people and government.

Mashhad, Sept 15, IRNA – Minister of Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said that John Bolton’s sacking by US President Donald Trump showed that the hardliners in the US failed to push forward their policies against Iran.

New Delhi, Sept 14, IRNA - India will hold high level dialogue with Iran on Sunday in Tehran as the two countries are expected to discuss very important issues such as Iran crude sales to India, the status of the nuclear deal and other points that are crucial in their bilateral relations.